As we unroll new pieces, we observe how others are playing, and ask:• How did they play last week?• What are they saying?• What do they expect?• How do we best stay out of their way?• What story are we telling?• What’s the bigger, over-arcing picture…a cohesive, or underlying theme defining how we present ourselves?

Namely, where there exists fact, there also exists “red herrings”…On television and in film, much of what we take for granted is removed for reasons of engaging the viewer’s focus, and helping to present the director’s vision in a single arc with minimal distraction. With an on-demand, or interactive basis for a web puzzle, the […]

Any creative property has a backstory; namely, the part that is interesting to the audience because it suggests the overarcing theme and humanity of the story. It is the history, and it also suggests that there will be a future after the entertainment is supposedly over. It enriches the story line and invites the audience […]

Sometimes there is a rule book. And sometimes there isn’t. In the latter case, the creators and the players will still need to agree upon some fundamentals. It is important that everyone first agree that they are playing a game. Sometimes, int he case of a reality based game, the rule book is part of […]

If you were to provide an account of what happened later, and try to account for their motives, what would these be? For the overarcing theme of a film to resonate as the end credits roll, the director’s vision should appear to illustrate a principle beyond the simple summary of its parts. If a mystery […]

With a fictitious character, there are so many questions surrounding that character and their world. What did they just do?

Visit the links to the content, backwards and forwards. Is security important?How easily can they find you, and what would this do to the effect of the story you’re trying to tell?

  Can we make it look as beautiful as possible, without making it too beautiful?

Sometimes, the theme of one’s work becomes apparent over the course of experimentation, or improvisation. Balance that, against:Can this somehow represent something which is greater as a whole, than as the sum of its parts?

On ALIAS, Jack Bristow is SD-6’s principal Game Theorist. He consults in the hour of need when a strategy is possibly at risk of being undermined by hasty evaluation of the odds, or when a chief decision maker is potentially likely to underestimate the movements of the players. The science of game theory is as […]